Your Social Security by Tom Margenau

Q: My husband is turning 66 and will soon apply for Social Security retirement benefits. He's scheduled to get about $2,000 per month. We have a 35-year-old daughter living at home who has been severely retarded since birth. She currently gets $900 in monthly SSI payments. I am 58 years old and have stayed home all my adult life to care for our daughter. So, I never worked to earn my own Social Security.
I have four questions. One: Will our daughter be eligible for benefits on her father's Social Security account -- and how much? Two: Are we required to apply for those benefits? Three: If so, will she lose her SSI and her Medicaid coverage? Four: Am I eligible for any benefits on my husband's record?

A: Here are the quick answers to your questions. One: yes. Two: yes.  Three: maybe. Four: maybe. But it will take the rest of this column to explain the issues in detail, to clarify those wishy-washy "maybe" answers and to offer you a "back door" plan to keep your daughter on Medicaid.

One: Your daughter is eligible for a dependent child's benefit on her father's record. Normally, children's benefits cannot be paid after age 18. But the law says a disabled child can receive benefits, even into adulthood. And she'll get those benefits for the rest of her life. She'll be eligible for an amount equal to one-half of your husband's full Social Security benefit -- in other words, about $1,000 per month.

Two: Yes, your daughter must apply for these benefits. Normally, no one would be forcing you (on behalf of your daughter) to file for Social Security benefits, but you said she is getting Supplemental Security Income. SSI is a welfare program that pays a monthly stipend to low income senior citizens and to disabled adults and children with limited means. Because SSI is a welfare payment, it's supposed to be an income of last resort. So, the law requires you (again, on behalf of your daughter) to file for any other government benefits for which she might be eligible.

Three: You're right. Your daughter would lose her SSI and possibly her Medicaid coverage if she gets Social Security benefits. There is essentially a dollar for dollar offset between her Social Security benefits and her SSI payments. When she starts getting $1,000 per month from Social Security, she will lose all of her $900 in SSI payments.

On the one hand, that sounds like good news. Your daughter is coming out $100 ahead. But on the other hand, I know from talking to many parents in your situation that the Medicaid coverage is far more valuable to you than the monthly cash payments. The law says if your daughter is getting SSI payments, even if it's only $1 per month, she's automatically eligible for Medicaid. Conversely, if she isn't getting SSI (because her Social Security benefits offset her SSI payments), then she will probably lose her Medicaid. I say "probably" because the Medicaid rules vary from one state to another. A few states allow people to keep their Medicaid coverage even if they lose their SSI eligibility.

Four: Now things get interesting. Generally, a woman can't collect benefits as a wife on her husband's account until she is 62. But as the mother of what the law terms a "disabled adult child," you are eligible for benefits even at your current age. You would normally be due the same rate your daughter gets, or $1,000 monthly.

But then we bump into another law that sets a maximum amount that can be paid on any one Social Security record. These "family maximum" provisions really get messy. For simplicity's sake, I'm going to say the maximum on your husband's account is $3,000. In other words, your husband and daughter would already be getting the maximum family rate. He'd get $2,000 per month and she'd be due $1,000 per month.

Normally, adding you to the roles brings your family no financial gain because you'd still end up being paid the $3,000 maximum rate. The only difference is that while your husband would keep his $2,000 check, you and your daughter would split the remainder and you'd each get $500.

And here is where we slip your daughter into Medicaid's back door. By adding you to your husband's account, you would reduce your daughter's Social Security benefit (from $1,000 to $500 per month), BUT she would be able to keep some of her SSI -- approximately $400 per month. And more importantly, by keeping some of her SSI, she keeps her Medicaid coverage.

I'm not sure if this will be kosher with the folks at the Social Security Administration. I've consulted several of my former colleagues at SSA and received divided opinions about whether they could put you on your husband's account just to keep your daughter on SSI. There's only one way to find out: Insist on filing for dependent's benefits along with your daughter when your husband applies for Social Security -- forcing them to make a formal decision about your daughter's SSI payments and Medicaid coverage.

To find out more about Tom Margenau and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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